William smith



W. SNHTH.

O StiH.

Patented April 19, 1.859.

V/T/VESSES UNITED STATES PATENT Eric a..

WILLIAM SMITH, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT lN COAL=OlL RETRTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 23,7 I9, dated April19, lf).

To @ZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, VTLETEM SMITH, of Pittsburg, in the county ofAllegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Coal-Oil and Gas Retorts, and I hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, Iproceed to describe the construction and operation of my improvedretort, taking reference to the accompanying drawings, makingapart ofthis speciiication, in which- Figure l is a longitudinal verticalsection, Fig. 2, a transverse vertical section of the whole retort, andFig. 3 a separate view of the hollow shaft and its arms.

In'all these gures the same letters of reference indicate like parts.

A is the retort. It is of cylindrical form,

and is supported by the front and back plates,

B B, which form a part of the furnace for heating the retort. Thisfurnace is not represented in the drawings, as ithas no relation to myimprovement, any known furnace arrangement by which a proper circulationof the heat around the retort is effected will answer the purpose.Thefirc-door of the furnace is indicated at a, Fig. l.

G C are the heads of the retort, bolted to it by a number of bolts, b Z)b.

c is the man-hole or feeding-opening, (provided in the head 0,) throughwhich the retort is charged with the coal or other substance to bedistilled, and through which also the residue of the substance isremoved after the distillation. The feeding-hole is closed in theordinary way byi a lid kept firmly down by a set-screw, d.

D is a hollow shaft passing tightly through the center of thev heads CC.

h 7i are hollow arms, tapped or screwed into the shait D so that theirhollow spaces communicate with that of the shaft. The arms extend closeto the cylindrical inside surface of the retort, however, withouttouching it. The number of arms or the distance they are apart, and alsothe mode of their distribution around the shaft, or their position inrelation to each other, may be changed variously and in any manner whichmay be deemed to be best suited to the nature of the substance to bedistilled, some substances requiring more, others less, agitation. ThusFig. 3 shows the arms set close together and arranged in a spiral linearound the shaft, which mode has the advantage that the arms enter andpass through the liquid or semiliquid mass in the retort in regularsuccession,whereby the resistance offered to the motion of the shaftwill be uniform and the agitation very regular.

In distilling coal for the purpose of producing gas the heat in theretort is of such a high degree that it would affect the strength of thearms 7L 7i and be injurious to them in regard to durability. To obviatethis, Imake t-he shaft and arms hollow, as above mentioned, and conducta current of air or water through them, which is introduced through onejournal of the shaft and passes out through the other, as indicated byarrows in Fig. l. By this means the shaft and arms are keptsut'ticientlycool, so as not to be injured by the heat in the retort.The gas or oil produced in the retort passes ofi" through one or morepipes, t' t', provided in the head C ot' the retort, which communicatewith a reservoir or condenser, as the case may be.

The operation of myimproved retort is very simple: After the retort isproperly charged through the feeding-opening c with the coal or othersubstance to be distilled, the shaft is set into a slow rotating motion;or, if such should be preferred, into an oscillating or vibratingmotion. This motion of the shaft is derived from any motive power bymeans ot' wheel-gearings or other well-known mechanical means. None ofthese means are represented in the accompanying drawings, as they haveno reference to the arrangement of my improved retort.

I am aware that shafts exposed to heat have been made hollow and wateror air conducted through them for keeping them cool. I therefore do notclaim this broadly; but,

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new in the constructionof coal-oil retorts and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The makingof the agitating-arms 7L hollow, and to communicate with the hollowshaft I), for the purpose of cooling them, by means of the current ofair or water passing through t-he said shaft, substantially as hereinset forth.

XVM. SMITH.

Yitnesses:

RonEE'r BELL, HENRY MAcsET.

